Landscape Sketch of the Arts 2025: what are the opportunities and challenges for the Flemish arts field?

The assignment literally reads as follows: [Flanders Arts Institute contributes] “to the development of the strategic vision statement on the arts (…) by providing a landscape analysis, no later than 1 September of the year preceding the year in which the vision statement is presented (…). [It is] based on a strengths-weakness analysis, which describes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the arts field. The landscape map contains qualitative and quantitative data on the arts sector within the Flemish Community, including figures on the international context, the identification of gaps and oversupply, a description of current trends and a list of opportunities for optimising arts policy.”

In the first part, seven discipline-specific chapters provide the reader with an overview of the current state of affairs and issues at stake in the disciplines of visual arts, performing arts, music, design, architectural culture, literature and film. Each discipline-specific chapter concludes with a SWOT analysis of the discipline in question.

Flanders Arts Institute gratefully made use of input from editorial partners VI.BE, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), Literatuur Vlaanderen and Vlaams Architectuurinstituut (VAi). We also drew on the ‘Actualisatie Veldanalyse Vormgeving’ (Field Analysis Design) in Flanders (2024) by the Department of Culture, Youth and Media. Flanders Arts Institute bears final responsibility for the chapters as published here.

In the second part, we analyse a selection of issues that affect the arts field across disciplinary boundaries in ten thematic chapters. These are topics that have been frequently raised by the arts field and deserve attention because of the impact of policy shifts, or because they help structure the artistic ecosystem, such as the functions in the Arts Decree.

Via our website you will find short versions in Dutch and English of each chapter, links to further research, specific sector advice, the Arts Database, and the full text of the book publication. You will also find information about the follow-up process, through which we aim to share and discuss the insights in this Landscape Sketch as effectively as possible with the arts sector. 

From the digital dossier page of the Landscape Sketch, we refer to the policy recommendations of some 35 interest groups and sector organisations, organised around thirty themes: the listing of opportunities for optimising arts policy, as requested in the Arts Decree (2021). Ten of these thirty themes are also the subject of the ten thematic chapters in the book publication. This is also a way for you to give us feedback and suggest new themes for possible follow-up research.

The knowledge gathered comes from our own research, input from editorial partners, literature studies, writing assignments, field sketches, interviews and focus group discussions, ongoing contact with players in the arts field, memoranda and other input from interest groups, and above all: a year of specific input collection.

In 2024, Flanders Arts Institute organised more than thirty sector events on a variety of scales: from discipline-wide sector days to small focus groups, sometimes discipline- and subdiscipline-specific or thematic, or sometimes a combination of both. Flanders Arts Institute did this for its core disciplines of visual arts, performing arts and classical music. Various editorial partners organised similar events for their respective disciplines. More than 1,200 participants made their voices heard in this way.

We aimed for the greatest possible diversity of voices. We kept the financial threshold as low as possible by either paying people who needed it a fee for their contribution or reimbursing them for at least their transport costs. We preferred easily accessible locations and ensured a good geographical spread. We also applied different discussion methods to ensure that as many people as possible had their say. 

This Landscape Sketch of the Arts was written in the spring of 2025, based on all this information. It underwent several rounds of iteration, and the various chapters received joint feedback from thirty external reviewers, each with specific expertise per chapter. From autumn 2025 onwards, the Landscape Sketch will form the basis for the upcoming work of Flanders Arts Institute: together with the sector and policymakers, we will take a solution- and action-oriented approach to the identified bottlenecks and opportunities. The Landscape Sketch will also play a role in our practical support work for players who wish to apply for project or operating funds (2028-2032) under the Arts Decree.

Its statutory mission is to contribute to the Strategic Vision Statement on the Arts, and to this end, its various sections together provide all the necessary information. However, this information is equally valuable for arts professionals who are considering how to position, profile and orient themselves in our arts field. This makes the Landscape Sketch a useful tool. From autumn 2025 onwards, we will support arts professionals in our core disciplines in using it.

Finally, the Landscape Sketch is an agenda for discussion between players in the field, and between the field and policy makers. It puts forward well-argued future scenarios, developed through discussions with arts professionals, and brings together policy recommendations from interest groups and representative structures online. We hope that the discussion about these paths and policy recommendations will be as diverse as the way in which the Landscape Sketch came about.